Tour De France Live. Stage 12: Montpelier to Castres - 178.5km/111 Miles

2.05pm: "Bloody hell, Barry," snorts Mark Taylor. "Did you lose paper scissors rock to get stuck doing the commentary on the Tour de France. I feel sorry for you mate. Chin up, I'm sure something exciting will happen in the next 2hrs." Normally I'd point out the possibility that this correspondence could be from former Australia batsman Mark Taylor, but I'm pretty sure his opening salvo would have been "Strewth cobber", not "Bloody hell, Barry".

2pm: The peloton rolls through the tunnel Keith and his banner have pitched up beside. Sadly for Keith, he's at one end of the tunnel and the camera is at the other. We'll never know what dire witticism he ended up daubing on it.

1.51pm: The gap between Fedrigo and Txurruka is now 8min 2sec and with the Eurosport commentators concentrating on the giant Nesquick bunny and its efforts to grope the Skoda promotional girls, now seems as good a time as any to tell you about the controversy that arose in the race this morning. Race leader Michael Rasmussen admitted it was an "administrative error" on his part that resulted in his expulsion from the Danish national cycling team because of repeated failures to give antidoping officials the required notice of his whereabouts while training.

"I do admit that I've committed an administrative error," he said this morning. "I was informed of this at the Danish championship two-and-a-half weeks ago, so it's no news. I'm just one out of many, and I just happen to ride with the yellow jersey right now." Rasmussen also said he was tested out of competition in June, and the results were negative. "I have no positive doping tests, and that's it," he said.



1.48pm: Good afternoon all. You join us 74km into the stage on the road to Castres as a breakaway duo, Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel) and Pierrick Fedrigo (Bouygues Telecom) go through what I suspect is the tunnel where Keith from yesterday has set up camp with his banner-on-a-tandem. They're 7min 31secs ahead of the peloton, which has let them go despite having spent the morning chasing down and swallowing up assorted other breakwaways.

Coverage of the action on the road will begin at 1.45pm

General classification after stage 11:


1. Rasmussen (RAB) 53h 11min 38sec

2. Valverde (GCE) +02min 35sec

3. Mayo (SDV) +02min 35sec

4. Evans (PRL) +02min 41sec

5. Contador (DSC) +03min 08sec

6.Sastre (CSC) +03min 39sec

7. Kloden (AST) +03min 50sec

8. Leipheimer (DSC) 03min 53sec

9. Kirchen (TMO) +05min 06sec

10. Astarloza (EUS) +05' 20"

Who's wearing what?


Yellow jersey: Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank)

Green jersey: Tom Boonen (Quick Step)

Polka dot jersey: Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank)

White jersey: Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel)

He's going to be positioned just before the tunnel at the category four climb between Bedarieux and Herepian, around about the 70km mark. Worryingly, Eurosport's coverage of the stage might start after the riders have passed this point, which would ruin Keith's chances of getting a worldwide audience.